John Byrne and the Doom Patrol!

[beetleblack]

Only just found out that apparently the man himself will be writing and drawing the all new-old Doom Patrol comic book coming to DC in June. Apparently it's a reboot of the original group so will have all the original members (The Chief, Robotman, Elasti-girl and Negative-man) plus some all new members.

Apparently Byrne is a huge fan of the original team who were all blown up dramatically in the doomladen final issue of their original series. The series was revived later on with Robotman leading them, eventually all the original characters came back from the dead bar Elasti-girl (Rita Farr) who - until now - has been one of the few comic-book characters to stay dead!

The group was revived in 1987 (I think) and when it failed to attract readers was given a revamp courtesy of Grant Morrison, after he left the award winning sci-fi writer (and Tarot card specialist) Rachel Pollack took over. Sadly the comic ended shortly afterwards but was recently bought back but also didn't last. Let's hope that with Byrne's name attached to the series this team will survive longer - the series starts in June, but the Doom Patrol are scheduled to guest star in JLA (currently written by Byrne and Claremont).

[I originally posted this in the General Discussion section but thought I would repost here where it's best suited.]

[DelBubs]

I know nothing about Doom Patrol, but found this,

==================
DOOM PATROL #1

Written by John Byrne; art by Byrne and Doug Hazlewood; cover by Byrne.

The original World¹s Strangest Heroes are back, in the way that only the legendary John Byrne can deliver. Picking up in the wake of the events of "The Tenth Circle" saga in JLA, this series reunites Robot Man, Elasti-Girl, Negative Man and Niles Caulder with a host of edgy new super-heroes. They've defeated the vampire Crucifer...or have they?

32 pages, $2.50, in stores on June 30.

DOOM PATROL #2

Written by John Byrne; art by Byrne and Doug Hazlewood; cover by Byrne

The rebirth of one of DC's most=beloved super-teams by John Byrne and Doug Hazlewood continues. The newly formed DP springs into against several escaped "specimens" in Caulder's facility.

32 pages, $2.50, in stores on July 28.
======================

[beetleblack]

Cool - I haven't read much about the new series, only that it seems to be ignoring EVERYTHING which has come before (in Doom Patrol terms) and is 'rebooting' (although apparently this was DCs idea and NOT Brynes). It all sounds very interesting so we shall see...

[TC]

Not too thrilled with the reboot part, but to have Byrne writing/ drawing the original DP is a fanboy dream come true.

Can't wait to see his take on the Brotherhood of evil!

[beetleblack]

Yeah, not happy about the 'reboot' either - don't like the idea that all the issues I've actually read and LOVED (Morrison/Pollack) are now not part of continuity at all!!! So all the characters that I grew to care about, Crazy Jane, Dorothy Spinner, Kate Godwin etc never even bloody existed!!!!!

Oh well, I shall give the new book a shot anyway. Apparently it was DC who demanded a reboot of the whole series, not sure why, surely they could have just continued the story from the end of the last relaunch. If they'd needed to have the original team back I'm sure they could have come up with some way to bring them all back.

[DelBubs]

Just a little more for ya, thats if you haven't read it already
http://www.diamondcomics.com/news/news.asp?ai=10452

[beetleblack]

Cool - thanks for the link.

It is as I fear - we are stuck with Nudge for the duration! I'm not sure if it's the name or the pained look on her face (I have only read two issues with her in JLA 94 & 95 - but she appears pained and tragic in BOTH!) but I have taken a bit of a disliking to this character. (I think it possibly IS the name.) Also, isn't THREE female brunettes on one team a little excessive? Nudge looks too much like Rita as it is.

And who out of the male characters are we meant to lust over???? Only the Chief is humanoid (and I'm afraid for me he'll always be a talking head on a tray of ice!)! I know we're meant to look at this team as a bunch of misfits but surely it's not too much to ask for one bit of male totty in the whole damn cast! They should have gotten Beast Boy to join, there's just something about that green skinned hunk, especially in his more hirsuite days...

I would rather have seen Bryne embrace the Doom Patrol in ALL it's incarnations and maybe used some of Morrison/Pollack characters on the roster. Imagine Crazy Jane and Coagula (Kate Godwin) fighting side by side with Dorothy Spinner! But I guess Byrne wants to make his mark on the team and so we're stuck with some Nudge, Vortex and the rest for the moment.

[Richv1]

I have been reading the JLA and I do not like the fact that the Doom Patrol seems to be a brand new team and they have completely forgotten about their past. Now John Bryne's art there is no doubt about it it is fantastic. Negative Man and Grunt the four armed gorilla are drawn exceptionally well. Now up dating Robot Man so he is as strong as Superman is also a good idea. But I don't know just forgetting about their past I think will not help it at all. Nudge and Vortex both do not seem good enough characters either to help maintain the book.

[beetleblack]

I have been reading the JLA and I do not like the fact that the Doom Patrol seems to be a brand new team and they have completely forgotten about their past. Now John Bryne's art there is no doubt about it it is fantastic. Negative Man and Grunt the four armed gorilla are drawn exceptionally well. Now up dating Robot Man so he is as strong as Superman is also a good idea. But I don't know just forgetting about their past I think will not help it at all. Nudge and Vortex both do not seem good enough characters either to help maintain the book.

Yeah, I've been reading JLA also and have to admit that so far I'm not greatly impressed with the all new, the all different, but spookily familiar Doom Patrol! Nudge and Vortex seem strangely bland and boring - not sure how long they'll last (they are called the DOOM Patrol after all!).

The whole Rebooting of the series is just an awful idea and makes everything that ever been written involving the Doom Patrol completely redundant PLUS it's not as if there has been any explaination for the Reboot (e.g. when Legion was rebooted they used Zero Hour to wipe out the original series of Legion and all it's characters from the timeline *sniff*. Personally I'd like to give whoever decided a reboot would be a good idea a good booting myself!!! I'm sure a man of Bryne's creative statue could have come up with an equally exciting line up for the team rather than relying on the original characters with a few odd-bods thrown in.

Ah well, maybe he will just get bored of it and Grant Morrison will take over writing it, I can see it now: Dorothy Spinner awakens from her coma and looks up to see all her Doom Patrol friends around her bedside (Robotman, Crazy Jane, Kate Godwin etc) and mutters "I've just had the strangest and most of retro dreams!"

[Richv1]

Somehow I think I agree the new Doom Patrol is DOOMED. They could have added a bit more fun to it even say with Elastic Girl in that skirt she used to wear and people being able to see up it might have been fun for a laugh.
The one thing I did like about the last JLA # 98 was that when the two teams did meet that they didn't get into a big fight they talked and decided to work together as a team. You know that in most cases when two teams meet they usually break out into a big fight. It was nice for a change not to see that happen. It seemed a bit strange to.

[varo]

is it just me or did byrnes art in his jla run seem either not up to his best stuff or even a little dated. don't get me wrong, this guy had some of the best art i had ever seen when alpha flight was in it's prime and the x-men, but his art in the jla series seemed above average at best.

just a observation, please don't flame.

[Weapon Omega]

I'm definately going to check out the new Doom Patrol series. Byrne is one of my favorites, both as an artist and writer. It should be interesting. How long it's going to last in today's comics market is hard to tell though.

[Richv1]

Well I read JLA # 99 and it was ok. Both teams worked together against the vampires. Negative Man's skeleton looks great much better than just the black shadow. Grunt is drawn nicely to. But I wasn't overly impressed with the new Doom Patrol.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Different people, different perspectives/opinions, Varo....I thought the artwork was fantasic(mostly because I saw some of the original pencils....the inking by Ordway however, left a lot to be desired IMHO). I don't think Byrne's talent has faded, in the least.

Dana

EDIT: I'm really looking forward to the new/old Doom Patrol(because I'm a big DP fan) and it doesn't hurt that one of my favorite artist/writers is doing it. Yay!

[Richv1]

You never know it might turn out to be a great series. If I had an unlimited amount of money I'd get to try. But I have to pick and choose which comics to get. I am currently getting 23 series. Plus I will be adding at least 6 more over the year. I might have to cancel some.